BERWICK ADVERTISER, 3RD FEBRUARY 1922

03/02/2022 by Northumberland Archives

BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS

ANNUAL LICENSING SESSIONS

Dates for Transfer Sessions were arranged as follows:- Thursdays, 23^rd March, 11 May, 22^nd June, 3^rd August, 28^th September, 9^th November, 21^st December, and 25^th January, 1923.

A plan from Messrs Johnson and Darling for alterations at the Corporation Arms was approved by the bench, the police having no objections.

Mr H. R. Peters made an application for a transfer of the license of the Salmon Hotel, High Street, Berwick, from Mr John Evans, the present owner, to Mr John Sharp, 26 Station Road, Whitley Bay, Granted.

Supt. Halliday’s annual report was as follows:- There are in the Borough, 44 full licenses, 1 beer on, 4 beer and wine off, and 2 beer off; making a total of 51, and showing an average of one license to about 255 inhabitants- the population (1921Census) of the borough being 12,994. On full licensed house was closed during the year 1921, viz.:- The Sun Inn, Woolmarket, having been found to be structurally deficient and unsuitable. There are four registered Clubs in the Borough with a membership ranging from 108 to 250. During the year 1921, proceedings for drunkenness were taken in 121 cases and 117 convictions resulted, being an increase of eight proceedings and thirteen convictions when compared with the number similarly dealt with during the year 1920. The figures for 1921 are equivalent to 9 convictions per 1000 population as compared with 7.95 convictions per 1000 in 1920. Since last Brewster Sessions one license holder was proceeded against and the case was dismissed on payment of costs. I have served notices of objection on the licensees of the Free Trade Inn, Castlegate, the Old Angel Inn, Marygate, the Brewers Arms, Marygate, and the Berwick Arms, Marygate. These premises I consider are structurally deficient and unsuitable for licensed premises. There are noapplications for new licenses.

FREE TRADE INN – Supt. Halliday said the bar was 35ft by 12ft, a sitting room 15ft x 12ft, upstairs sitting room 12x 12. Inside the house there was a urinal and a W.C. near to the sitting room door. There was a very objectionable smell, especially in the summer time. The ceilings of the house are low and with a crowded house objectionable.

OLD ANGEL INN – Supt. Halliday said the bar was 12 x 15, sitting room 5 ½ x9, both with low ceilings. The building was old, damp and bad repair. There was also an outside passage with a side entrance in to the public house, which was an objection, as it facilitated secret drinking, especially amongst women. The outside passage was dark and not lit at nights. The accommodation was altogether inadequate, the bar, and one small sitting room being all there was. The place was called an inn, and therefore was supposed to accommodate travellers. There was no accommodation of that sort.

The Old Angel, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1950’s Ref: BRO 1250/85

BREWER’S ARMS, MARYGATE- Supt. Halliday said the bar was 15^th x21ft, sitting room 9f x 8ft, and another sitting room 21ft x 12ft. It was an old building and in very bad repair. The ceilings of the rooms were low. There was an outside passage with a side entrance, which encouraged secret drinking amongst women. There was no dwelling house in connection with this house.

Brewers Arms, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1950’s. Ref: BRO 1250/18

BERWICK ARMS, MARYGATE – Supt. Halliday said the bar was 15ft by 12ft, and had a large window. There was a sitting room 15ft. by 12ft., and a kitchen 9ft by 12ft, which was sometimes used for drinking purposes. There was also a sitting room upstairs, 15ft by 12ft., also sometimes used for drinking purposes. The building was old, damp, and in very bad repair. There was an outside passage with a side entrance.

Berwick Arms, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1950’s. Ref: BRO 1250/97

By Mr Henderson – There were no complaints against the conduct of the house. He thought Mr Wheeler did his best, but a side entrance was against proper supervision. Sometimes things were done in these dark passages which neither Mr Wheeler nor anyone else could see.

THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

Regarding the Free Trade Inn, Mr Steven, of the Border Brewery, in answer to Mr Henderson, said this was believed to be ante-1869 license. Alterations (including convenience) were made in 1904 to meet the wishes of the magistrates. The Border Brewery did not consider any further alterations necessary. They had had no objections from the tenant or his customers.

Mr Henderson said that, if the objection was upheld, this being an ante-1869 license, must be referred for compensation. If the house had a later license, and was objected to as structurally unsound, it could be closed without compensation.

In regard to the Old Angel Inn, Mr Henderson said Messrs Johnson & Darling would do their best to meet the wishes of the Superintendent. The plan handed in related to alterations passed by the Justices in 1920, but was not now approved by Supt. Halliday. That could be altered if the Justices thought necessary.

Mr Henderson, in connection with the Brewers’ Arms, appeared for Mrs Renton, the present owner. The conveyance to Messrs T. & J. Bernard, the recent purchasers, was not yet complete, and so legally they had no locus standi. The house was sols as an ante-1869 beer house, and he believed that that was the case, but the vendor had not yet had time to produce evidence to the Magistrates, and there seemed to be no Justices’ register available. The new owners when they bought the house intended to make a thoroughly respectable place of it, and they held to that intention.

The Berwick Arms, said Mr Henderson, was in the occupation of Mrs Howe, who was a life tenant, and Messrs Johnson & Darling leased from her. Mrs Howe had just had the notice served on her and had not had time to come to any decisions.

The Magistrates retired, and when they came back the Mayor announced that they had decided to adjourn the consideration of the four cases till Thursday, March 2^nd.

Not as Dull as it Sounds!

26/01/202224/01/2022 by Northumberland Archives

NRO 3941/5
T. W. McDowall – Medical Superintendent

Last year I started cataloguing the County Lunatic Asylum records which are part of our Quarter Session collection. I soon discovered that the material contained numerous handwritten and printed reports. These were mainly annual reports written by the Medical Superintendent of the asylum, the Committee of Visitors and the Commissioners in Lunacy. The latter two wrote reports after carrying out inspections of the institution. A first, I thought these would make very dry reading but soon found that they offered a wealth of information about life in the asylum and the types of challenges they faced.

A report from the Committee of Visitors for the year 1866 revealed some interesting information about a short cholera outbreak in the asylum that year. It named four patients who contracted the disease and died. The word attacked refers to the time they were diagnosed.

Patient Name	Attacked	Died
George Trueman	28 October at 9am	29 October at 3am
Margaret Daglish	2 November at 5am	2 November at 6.35pm
Mary Ann Hall	3 November at 9am	4 November at 12.30am
Ralph Havis	4 November at 1am	4 November at 7.45pm

The Committee of Visitors reported that luckily there were no other cases but sadly they had the disagreeable duty to perform of investigating the outbreak. It is noted that the death of Ralph Havis ended in the resignation of the Assistant Medical Officer, Mr Hughes. On the 24 November 1866, The Morpeth Herald reported that medical staff in the asylum were being investigated on alleged charges of neglect. They stated that an inmate in the institution had died of cholera and was not attended by a doctor until after he had passed away.

At the time of the outbreak, Richard Wilson was the Medical Superintendent. His annual report for the year 1866 mentions the sudden outbreak of cholera which occurred towards the close of the year. He claims that the crowded state of the asylum caused much anxiety as there were no suitable detached buildings for the immediate isolation and treatment of infected patients. He respectfully suggests to the Committee of Visitors that they could consider building a small, detached building where sick patients could be comfortably and suitably tended as well as isolated from the other inmates in the case of extreme fever or epidemic outbreak.

Unfortunately, Mr Wilson was unsuccessful. The Commissioners in Lunacy visited the asylum on 27 February 1867 and their report stated that they were strongly of the opinion that it was not desirable to construct places for the sick away from the immediate vicinity of the medical officers. They suggested that it would be preferable to make some additions to the rooms that had been formed out of the old asylum bathrooms which had been used during the prevalence of cholera the previous year.

In the Medical Superintendent’s report for 1898, it is noted that the deaths from phthisis (tuberculosis) continue to be excessive in number. The Superintendent of the asylum is now Mr T. W. McDowall. In his report he points out that there is still a great need for a detached hospital for the early separation and treatment of infectious diseases. He states that the north of England is at the present time threatened with an epidemic of smallpox and at any time this loathsome and dangerous disease could be introduced into the asylum population.

By 1901, the Committee of Visitors appear to be taking things more seriously as their report refers to the urgency of building an isolation hospital. This it appears was partly in response to concerns raised by the Coroner of North Northumberland in a letter to the Committee.

Alnwick, 5^th March, 1901

Dear Sir,

I held two inquests, one on Saturday last and one yesterday, at the County Lunatic Asylum, Morpeth, on the bodies of pauper lunatics, both of whose deaths were attributable to erysipelas [infectious disease of the skin] following upon slight wounds accidently received. In enquiring yesterday into the means of isolation for infectious diseases (and it is well known that erysipelas is a highly infectious disease), it appears that both paupers had been in one ward, and that there is no infectious ward at the asylum for the isolation of infectious cases.

The jury added a rider to their verdict in the case yesterday as follows: –

“The jury desire to record that they have learned from the evidence with surprise that there is no infectious hospital, or means of isolating infectious cases, at the asylum, and they consider such defect should be immediately remedied.”

I sincerely trust that your committee will immediately take the matter into very serious consideration, especially so, as it was given in evidence yesterday that the subject had been more than once brought to their attention, both by the Superintendent Medical Officer and by the Lunacy Commissioners.

Yours, &c.,

Chas. Percy, Coroner.

The report from the Committee of Visitors for the year ending 31 March 1902, states that plans for an isolation hospital have been forwarded to the Secretary of State and the Lunacy Commissioners. Plans had originally been drawn up to accommodate ten patients, but the Commissioners recommended that this should be changed to six patients to reduce costs.

In his report for the year ending 31 March 1902, Medical Superintendent Mr McDowall, mentions five deaths due to typhoid. His frustration is evident, and he isn’t afraid to note that the want of an isolation hospital has always been a serious defect in the arrangements of the asylum. He states that it is now more than twenty years since he directed attention to this matter and it is only quite recently that a decision was made to provide a small hospital where cases of infectious diseases could be removed and thus diminish the risk of contagion.

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 20TH JANUARY 1922

21/01/2022 by Northumberland Archives

MYSTERY AIRMAN

MAN SUDDENLY FINDS HIMSELF IN BERWICK,

IS LATER IDENTIFIED BY HIS MOTHER,

A BELFAST LADY.

Berwick residents found themselves face to face with as sensational a “Mystery Story” as ever could be found in the Sunday papers last week when it became known that a man who had fallen down in Castlegate the week previously and had been taken to the Infirmary had suffered from loss of memory since 1917.

Engraving of Berwick Infirmary HB1-68 late 19th Century

Such was the statement made by a tall, refined and well-groomed young man giving the name Bert Templeton King, an ex-U.S.A. Airman. King was found in Castlegate by a man named Conway, suffering it was thought from a fit. He was taken to the Infirmary, where he was seen by Dr W. B. Mackay and others, who formed the opinion that he was suffering from lost memory. The matter was brought to the notice of Supt. Halliday, who had several interviews with King in all of which, while he talked intelligently, he professed to know nothing about himself since 1917.

KING’S STORY

His story was to the effect that his father was on the shipping line, a citizen of New Jersey, U.S.A., and he himself had been an artist prior to joining the American Air Force in 1917. He stated that he could remember events clearly up to that year and amongst other things he said he had been trained at Mineola Aerodrome, New York, and had taken his pilot’s certificate. This was found in his possession, along with an American Registration Card. He had two kit bags full of clothing with him and a number of letters, but no money, and the Police set out to see if anything could be done to lead to identification.

THE POLICE “HAE THEIR DOOTS.”

In passing, it may be said the police were suspicious of the medical theory of lost memory; at least, not from such a distant period as 1917, it being contended that no man could wander across the Atlantic and travel up and down the country for nearly four years without showing some abnormal traits, consistent with loss of memory. Subsequent events seemed to prove that the police theory was very near the mark.

Inquiries instituted proved beyond doubt that King had been employed as a chauffeur with a gentleman in Sussex more than a year ago, and had then travelled north to take up a similar position with a gentleman living at Davidson’s Mains, East Lothian. King had been normal enough to carry on an intelligent correspondence with a young Edinburgh lady with whom he was on friendly terms. He seems to have told her quite a different story to that which he had told to the police.

His father was a motor car manufacturer in New Jersey, he is alleged to have said, and he was across in this country acting as agent for his father’s cars.

After having kept company for some six months with this young lady, King seems to have announced his intention of going south to Southampton, it was believed with the intention of returning to America. How he expected to get there without money is not clear, but it is a fact that he had none when he was picked up in Castlegate on Wednesday week.

BRO 2103-4-2-71 Castlegate looking North mid 1900’s

It was explained to King by the police that he had told a different story to the girl in Edinburgh to that which he had given in Berwick, and he replied, “ What girl! I know no girl there, and cannot remember having said that.” Superintendent Halliday then showed him the girl’s photo. To this he replied, “I have never seen her before.”

THE MYSTERY MAN ADOPTED

Full publicity having been given to the “Mystery Man” in the daily Press, the police had several inquiries for people in different parts of the Kingdom who had lost touch with a relative of their own. On Saturday three ladies arrived in Berwick, one of whom proved to be King’s mother, who had travelled from Belfast, and the others were his aunts. They identified him without difficulty, and though King contended he did not know them, he said he would go with them.

It transpires that King’s parents read of the “Mystery Man” in the “Daily Mail” and immediately recognised that it referred to their son, who they had been in touch with up to two years ago. The parents are well-to-do people, the father holding an important position in Harland Wollfs’s shipyard, Belfast. They are of Scotch extraction, which does not tally with King’s story of being a native of New Jersey. It happens; however, he was in America prior to 1917 and did serve, as he says, in the American Air Force. His parents, with whom he had been in touch from 1917 to 1919, know of no period when he suffered from loss of memory, and his movements up to two weeks ago seem to show him to have been normal, and his lapse of memory can only be traced from the time he arrived in Berwick.

During his stay in the Infirmary he has been very popular with the medical men, staff and convalescents, and has been going messages from one ward to another evidently quite normally. Mrs King is staying on in Berwick until the medical men give permission for her son to travel home.

+ More